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Thursday, January 19, 2012 / 7:13 pm

Gaining Her Daughter’s Trust

When Katherine adopted her daughter Naleigh in 2009, she wasn't expecting to have any difficulty bonding with her new baby immediately,
but as she explained to
CNN, Naleigh
initially gravitated more towards her husband Josh Kelley.

"He would just come into the room and make her giggle and make her laugh," Heigl recalls. "I would always think,
'Something's wrong, something's wrong. She doesn't like me, she doesn't want me.'"

"[Josh] hadn't put any pressure on himself, he was just himself, where I was trying to be the perfect mother and everything she
expected or thought she expected," Katherine continued. "I learned a lot from him, actually. I started following his lead, [and]
just had to let it go. And have enough perspective to know that this will come around, this child will come around."

In actuality, all that was needed was time for mother and daughter to work on their relationship and develop trust.

Comments (2)

It’s called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). Katherine needs to learn about it. There are a lot of books, trainings, & support groups out there. One of my first books to read was “When a Stranger Calls You Mom”. Later met the author at a conference. It’s a very, very difficult journey. I’d had already raised three biological children to adulthood, then later adopted this son. It won’t be easy.